With the NBA lockout moving into its latest pivotal week, here are the key elements to monitor:

The majority of NBA owners continue to insist that it’s not all bad to lose the 2011-12 season to overhaul the system. So even though negotiations have moved the players from the 57 percent of Basketball Related Income they were getting in the old deal to the players essentially offering 51 (see video of Derek Fisher below), the owners are threatening that they’ve made their last offer of this high quality. Bear in mind, the owners view this as time to build a brand-new system, and the players have been trying to negotiate off that previous 57 percent.

The owners have given the players until Wednesday to accept this offer (one that Fisher already said wasn’t acceptable) or face the threat of much worse offers and even a canceled season. The players are scrambling to figure out what to do: Although it’s hard to see that the much-discussed decertification scenario will solve anything any time soon, the union’s executive committee will talk over options Monday before all 30 player representatives are questioned Tuesday about how they feel about things. Do the players really want to give up the rest of their entire season’s salary with the stalemate over future earnings no longer that vast?

The heightened possibility of teams such as the Lakers with a big market and big payroll to dominate the NBA remains a core issue. Still to be worked out is whether the new collective bargaining agreement would let big spenders who are usually over the luxury-tax threshold, which will include far more severe penalties, do sign-and-trades or use their mid-level salary-cap exception anywhere close to as other teams could.